Exist Outside My Dreams
by jessica499499
Summary: Part two of the Threshold Trilogy. All Nico wanted was to give his Alpha everything he could ever ask for. To be the Omega that his mate deserved. And he wanted the one thing every Omega in the world wanted. To have a family. AKA: The Solangelo Alpha/Beta/Omega AU where Will and Nico face challenges they never expected as they begin to try and start a family of their own.
1. Three Years Later

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series or any of its characters. Just the right to make Fanfiction about them. **_

_**THIS IS PART TWO OF A SERIES! YOU NEED TO READ THE FIRST ONE FOR THIS TO MAKE SENSE! **_

* * *

_**3 years later**_

Nico screamed into the hand towel with every ounce of frustration and agony his form contained. He screamed and bit and wept against the course fabric; barely able to keep himself as silent as he was.

Then when he was done he began stomping.

The tiny plastic stick at his feet didn't stand a chance beneath his boots as he attacked it with all the anger of an enraged demigod.

He stomped and smashed till only bits of plastic and metal remained.

He stomped until his anger drained and only his sorrow lingered. Then he waved his hand and sent the debris away using shadow travel to some place no one else would ever see it.

Some place where Will would never have to see it; he'd seen enough of them over the last three years. When every last little piece was gone Nico sank to the bathroom floor and continued his weeping.

3 years. 6 heats. 6 ruts.

And still every pregnancy test he took came back negative. Every single one.

A year of without conception was concerning.

Two was worrisome.

Three was tragic.

Between his sobs Nico almost laughed.

Of course he couldn't get pregnant. He was the son of the god of death. What life could spring from a man who was half dead to begin with?

Because Alpha's were never sterile, it had to be his fault.

He was broken. Faulty. Whole in form, but not in function.

It was worse than that though. Worse than knowing he'd never have any children of his own. That no Michael or Bianca with his blood would ever step foot on the Earth.

Worse than that was the fact that he'd taken that dream away from Will.

He'd promised the blonde babies. A huge family to call their own.

They'd once argued about whether they should have 5 or 6 to start with.

Nico couldn't even give him one.

Every attempted ended the same; with Nico crying and apologizing to Will for being defective. The blonde would kiss him and soothe him and tell him they'd try again.

Gods knew that they tried. Every heat, every rut, every single chance they got they tried.

There had been heats that they'd nearly never parted from one another for fear of missing their miracle moment. The instant that never came where life would take root inside the raven instead of withering before fruition.

Each time with the same result as planting seeds in barren soil. Nothing.

Now Nico could barely stand the feel of Will's hands on his stomach. Knowing that his mate's healing touch would only feel how empty Nico was inside. How broken.

How he'd ruined their dreams before they'd even begun.

He hated himself. He hated his body. He even hated every drop of demigod blood in his veins. He would have traded all his powers, all his gifts, for even the chance to be a normal Omega and give Will what he wanted. What they both wanted.

When Nico was dry of tears and drained of energy he leaned against the sink in their bathroom and let the coolness of it his seep into his overheated skin.

How could he tell Will he'd failed again? How could he stand to step outside their cabin again and feel the pitying looks from everyone who saw him?

All of them thinking: _There goes Nico back from his heat leave. Wonder if he'll ever actually get pregnant like a real Omega. _

Everyone at camp knew they were trying; and everyone knew it was Nico's fault they were failing.

Because Will was always reading medical texts on the subject, fussing over his diet, giving him vitamins and making sure Nico spent extra time resting before and after a heat. Everything and more than any Alpha could be expected to do.

All of it was a painful reminder of the fact that he was blessed with the best Alpha in the entire mortal realm and he in turn was a curse upon that Alpha.

And all he could possibly do in return was try to do what his Alpha said and make his nests as comfortable as possible. Will had read somewhere that the comfort of a nest could heavily influence chances of impregnation and ever since Nico had been obsessed with making the perfect one.

Even if it meant kicking Will out of their cabin a whole week before his heat began to start it. Even when it meant practically smothering their space in cloth and supplies.

Even when none of them ever turned out as perfectly as the first one he'd made. When he'd been younger and untroubled with doubts about his fertility.

That nest had been made with all of his hope and his love.

The ones he made after were crude imitations crafted in desperation and despair. Even Will's compliments on them fell flat despite his best efforts.

The only thing he'd done right as an Omega was to get the best Alpha available to be his mate. And now he didn't know if he'd get to say that for much longer.

In Nico's original time barren Omega were considered almost less than human. They had failed at the one thing Omega were supposed to excel at more than any other designation. It was considered a shameful thing to be known as even a relative to a sterile Omega, let alone a sterile Omega yourself.

Three years was the cut off deadline back then. If a claimed Omega gave their Alpha no children after trying for that long it had been socially acceptable to leave them.

Lucky ones went back to their families with only the pain of a removed claiming mark.

Unlucky ones didn't have families that would take them back or were too heart broken from the loss of their mate to live.

His childhood home in Italy had been close to a bridge that sterile Omega were famous for jumping off of.

He knew people didn't think that way about sterile Omega anymore and he also knew Will would never leave him. The blonde took things like claiming and mating more seriously than anyone Nico had ever known.

Will would stand by him through Tartarus, through war, even through barrenness.

But Nico couldn't ask that of him. He couldn't ask Will to give up his greatest dream for him.

He would have to be the one that made the hard decision. To set Will free.

He'd tell Will it was over and then he'd leave. Camp Half Blood had been Will's home far longer than his and the camp needed its head doctor more than its funeral director.

Will would grieve, but he'd heal. Eventually he'd take a new mate and have a whole litter of children with blonde hair and Zaffre blue eyes.

Nico…..He'd figure out another way to live. Away from his home. Away from his Tesoro.

That last failed test had cemented the idea for him.

He'd asked Will to make sure he had some free time after his infirmary shift for them to talk. So that he could break the news that he wasn't pregnant and leaving all in one fell swoop.

To rip it off quick like a bandage.

Through the cracked open bathroom door he noted the setting of the sun. Will would be there soon.

Nico wetted a different wash cloth and wiped it across his face with care. He didn't need to worry his mate on sight with his tear drenched face.

He'd just finished that task when he heard the feather light footfalls of his mate across their now nestless cabin.

Nico never liked to look at them long after his heat was over, so Will was always careful to pack up as much as he could while Nico napped for several hours following his heats.

_Like a healthy fertile Omega._ He thought bitterly before smoothing over his features.

He'd promised himself at least a few happy moments with his mate before he told him.

Just a last precious few.

"Angel." Will called out for him.

Nico's eyes welled just a little with fresh tears.

_That might be the last time he ever calls me that._ He thought bitterly.

With great effort the Italian swallowed down the rising sob and exited the bathroom.

He must have done a poor job with his face because it only took Will a moment to see it and understand.

"Oh Sunshine." He whispered sorrowfully.

Nico nodded his head to affirm his mate's obvious suspicion about the results of his last test and didn't fight the blonde when warm arms wrapped around him. He sniffled against the blonde's collarbone and whimpered sorry over and over. Will just smoothed down his frazzled hair and kissed his forehead.

"You have nothing to be sorry for Sunshine." The blonde assured him.

That just somehow made Nico feel worse.

"I'm broken inside Will." He admitted around a sob. "I can't give you kids. I can't give you what I promised. I'm a failure. A freak of nature." He sobbed.

This had building up inside him for so long that now that he knew they would soon be over he couldn't keep it inside anymore.

"I'm damaged goods Will. Barren soil." He informed the blonde with a dwindling voice. "You deserve the best Omega and I'm just me."

With mounting despair and anger Nico clawed at his claiming mark through his shirt with one hand.

"I don't deserve this. I don't deserve you."

Will caught his hand before the raven could really dig into his own skin and ruin his mark.

"Gods Nico." He gasped in horror. "Is that what you really think?"

Nico was too drained from his earlier crying and outburst to do more than nod and whisper.

"I can't keep doing this Will. I can't keep ruining this for you…I….I can't be your mate anymore."

Will looked like his mate had just admitted he was part Gorgon or some other unbelievably monstrous thing.

"You don't mean that." Will argued firmly; even as his eyes widened and his voice cracked.

"I do." The raven insisted weakly as he stepped out of Will's reach.

"I love you Nico." The blonde declared with desperate honesty as his arms chased after the raven's retreating form. "You can't say that you don't love me back. You wouldn't have stayed with me this long if you didn't."

Nico swiped a tear from his eye and avoided Will's beseeching gaze. He couldn't say he didn't love Will. Even at his weakest he couldn't lie like that.

"I don't need kids Nico." The blonde continued, sensing Nico's budding hesitance.

"I've got a whole camp full of kids to love and look after. But there's only one you Sunshine and I wouldn't trade you for all the children in the world."

Nico barely dared to hope that the blonde was being honest as he tentatively met his gaze.

"It's been three years Will. At this point it's pretty much guaranteed I'm sterile. You say you don't want kids now, but what if you regret that later in life? What if you regret staying with me when you could have an Omega with working parts?"

Will inched closer to the raven until he was sure that Nico wasn't about to bolt and then he gathered his mate up in his arms.

"We can adopt. We can surrogate. We have options Angel. This isn't the end of the world. We tried. We'll keep trying. We matter more than some potential child."

Will gathered the other man's face between his palms.

In-between every sentence he paused to kiss Nico.

"You are perfect."

"And whole."

"And hands down the best Omega I have ever known."

Will placed one last kiss on his forehead.

"You can't let the negative stuff get bottled up like that Angel. Talk to me. I'm your mate. Your Alpha. I'll listen. I'll understand."

Will pressed their foreheads together and sighed. "I'm the one that's been pushing you too hard about this with all my talk of your diet and resting. I should have considered how that'd make you feel. What kind of pressure that would put on you. I was just trying to help. I promise I'll try to take a step back and look into other ways. Okay?"

Nico nodded to show his understanding before finally allowed himself to collapse into Will's arms.

"I…I thought I was going to have to leave." He sobbed against the blonde's top.

"Never Angel." Will promised. "You're home. You're my home. We'll have the family we want someday. Maybe not the way we planned to get it, but we'll have it."

Nico leaned against Will's chest and prayed that that was true.

* * *

Will was true to his word and locked all his medical journals away. He stopped stressing over Nico's diet and the pair began spending much more quality time together again.

Nico felt like he'd been carrying the world on his shoulders for so long that finally sharing it with Will again made him feel several hundred pounds lighter.

They were finally talking like they used to without the taboo topic of their fertility issues hanging over their heads. It felt okay now to talk about having testing done and to consider options like adoption. Nico was obviously dubious of their chances at that though. The Italian barely existed on paper outside of Camp Half Blood; no mortal adoption agency would give a child to someone whose background contained a 70 something year gap in it.

Even if Will tried adopting alone he couldn't very well give a home address of Camp Half Blood. It wasn't exactly a place where a home visit could be safely made. Even if it was possible, one look at the literal Wall of Lava would get them red stamped quicker than they could say welcome.

So mortal adoption was out and demigod adoption had never really been a thing before.

Demigod children could never technically be orphans give the fact that one of their parents had to be immortal, but gods were never known for their parenting skills.

Still, demigod children very seldom lost their mortal parents. Gods tended to keep at least a little bit of an eye on the parents of their children and monsters usually weren't interested in them like they were their young.

Still, there were the occasional exceptions.

More than half of the Seven had been orphans.

Leo, Frank, Hazel, and even Jason.

And of course, so had Bianca and Nico.

Still, most orphaned demigod children arrived at Camp Half Blood as preteens, already being trained for battle and in need of more guidance than parenting.

Infant and toddler demigods were almost unheard of at camp, even with the promise Percy had gotten from the gods about revealing all their children; if only because mortal parents or relatives normally stepped up to raise them.

So no little demigod child was going to come crawling through the barriers to them anytime soon.

It had been a tough discussion, had over popcorn and lit only by Will's comforting glow in the dark, but in the end they knew adoption had a very slim chance of happening.

That left surrogacy or egg donation. Which admittedly had its own hurdles to overcome.

If Nico was as sterile as they both feared that meant they'd need to get an egg donor to contribute the part of the child's conception that Nico couldn't.

Through mortal means the same obstacles existed as with adoption, but through a demigod donor it was theoretically possible.

Within minutes they had a short list started as to who they could ask to do something so major for them.

Annabeth, Piper, Reyna, and of course Nico's own sister Hazel; if she wasn't infertile like him. If even with their aid Nico's body couldn't support another life within it their lists also covered possible surrogates.

Nico hoped for it to be possible for him to receiving a donated egg rather than have them use a surrogate.

Just the thought of another Omega carrying Will's child inside them nearly sent him into hysterics. The idea of another Omega smelling like Will, rounding with his mate's child, made him feel a twisted combination of panic and despair. Will would want to be close to the Omega carrying his offspring, he'd want to protect them and pamper them and eventually he'd fall in love with them; Nico was sure of it.

Nico knew himself well enough to know he'd never be able to handle it. He'd get too jealous, too protective. He hated to cut off another of the few option they had to choose from, but he had to be honest. He told Will about his worries even though it made his frame shake and his voice quiver. Even though he felt awful just voicing them.

Will just smiled and kissed his cheek.

"Then no surrogates. Not if it makes you uncomfortable. We'll find another way."

Nico sagged against his mate with relief.

Will wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close until the raven's back was to his chest.

"Thank you for telling me." He whispered into the raven's hair.

Nico leaned in his head further back until he was able to lean all the way onto his mate.

"Thank you for understanding."

Will didn't say anything back, just intertwined their fingers and continued to glow.

* * *

I didn't want to leave you in suspense, so here's part two! Hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Sincerely,

Jessica499499/LacyFairgold


	2. Broken One

Nico frowned as he brushed back his hair and straightened his skull top. Anxious jitters made his fingers fumble with the brush and his stomach roll.

It had been a month since his last heat had ended and the two had had their talk.

Today was the day Will would get their results back. So they'd know once and for all if it was possible for Nico to get pregnant.

Despite everything, he still hoped. He hoped that just maybe the results would come back and say it was possible for them to conceive. Even if it meant they had to do it in a way other than the more natural method. He didn't care how Will got him pregnant, as long as it happened.

"Please." He begged the universe in general; too afraid to ask any specific god for aid. "Don't let me always be the one with issues in this relationship."

Even as he said it he felt bad. Will got his own nightmares about lives he couldn't save; his own worries about campers under his care.

Nico just hated being another one of his worries.

The raven was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear his mate enter their cabin; he didn't even notice Will was there until he found the blonde sitting on their bed with his face in his hands.

His stomach dropped as his mind immediately went to the worse case scenario. Will had gotten their results. He'd seen proof of Nico's defectiveness in print. He'd come to the same realization Nico had a month ago. That Nico was too broken to be anyone's mate. Tears were falling from his eyes before he even fully stepped into the room. Will looked up at the sound of the floor creaking beneath Nico's feet and met his watery gaze.

His face looked like perfect reflection of the agony Nico felt. His eyes were red and his skin was flushed and even his hair looked limp and faded; like someone had stripped the sun god's child of his glow.

Half of Nico wanted to run; to get away before Will could say anything.

But the weaker half caved the moment Will opened his arms and beckoned him forward.

He fell into the blonde's arms like a weight into water.

He wanted to apologize, but Will beat him to it.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He sobbed into Nico's hair.

The raven didn't understand. What did Will have to be sorry about?

The blonde pulled back enough to look at Nico's face with watery blue eyes.

"I shouldn't have assumed. I should have checked before I ever even asked you to be my mate." He admitted through tears.

When the raven only looked up at him in confusion Will just cried harder.

"It's my fault. I'm the one that's broken Nico. I'm the reason we can't have kids." He admitted in an agonized rush.

All Nico could do was stare at him.

That didn't make any sense. Alphas couldn't be infertile. When a child couldn't be conceived it was always the Omega's fault. Never the Alpha's.

"Will, that isn't possible." He tried to assure the blonde.

Will shook his head so hard it looked painful.

"It is. It never made sense for you to be the infertile one between us. You're a child of the big three, your heats last a week at a time, and you have the strongest heat scent I've ever smelled. Those are signs of peak fertility. Any other Alpha would only have had to look at you side ways to get you pregnant."

Will's voice got lower as he continued.

"My ruts last two days at most and even then my scent barely changes. I talked to my mom after I got the results. She had a mate before Apollo, but she couldn't get pregnant no matter what they tried. Her mate died two years into the relationship and then my mom met Apollo and had me. But until then, she didn't think it was possible for her to have children."

Will's eyes were so dim despite their wetness.

"I swear to you I didn't know infertility ran in my family. I didn't even know Alphas could be infertile."

Nico's disbelieve must have been evident on his face because Will forced himself to continue.

"There's speculation in the medical field that it might be possible, but that any Alpha's with the condition force their Omegas to get pregnant through others and then hide away during their pregnancy rather than admit publicly that they have fertility issues, but I always assumed it was a just a rumor or a theory." Will admitted. "Or it might just be because I'm a demigod conceived from the womb of infertile mortal. Nature making sure my line stops after me no matter what my designation is."

Will looked calmer now, though still just as sad.

"I'm the broken one Angel. You're just as perfect an Omega as I always knew you were."

Nico didn't know what to say. He'd been so sure he was the damaged one, that he was the cause of all their grief. It had never even occurred to him that Will's contribution to their unions was the cause of their inability to conceive.

For a moment warmth sparked deep in Nico's chest.

He could get pregnant. He could carry a child.

The spark flickered and died as he continued that train of thought.

He could have a child; but it wouldn't be Will's child.

It could never be Will's.

And if it couldn't be Will's he never wanted it to be anyone else's.

His hope for children had finally been smothered; but his love for Will had only grown.

"I love you." Nico reminded him as gently as he could as he reached out and cupped the blonde's face between his palms.

Tears dripped onto his hands as Will continued to look at him like he was unworthy to even sit in Nico's presence, let alone be his mate.

The sight made the raven's heart ache. Slowly enough to keep him from startling Nico pulled his face down until they were less than a breath apart.

"You are perfect."

A kiss to his forehead

"And whole."

A kiss to his cheek.

"And hands down the best Alpha I have ever known."

He promised with a final kiss to Will's pale lips.

Will's eyes widened at the echoing of his own words of reassurance to Nico not so long ago.

"This doesn't change anything between us." Nico assured him gently.

From his expression the blonde clearly didn't believe him.

"But Nico….you could have children." Will reminded him just as quietly.

A part of the Italian still ached at the thought, but he'd made his decision the moment he knew it.

He shook his head surely.

"No Will, if I can't have your children than I don't want them."

Will's expression was pained.

"You haven't even given yourself time to think about it Angel. We could get a sperm donor and they'd still be half you and I'd love them as my own."

Nico just shook his head.

"You don't want that anymore than I do. Anymore than I'd have been able to handle using a surrogate."

Will looked down shamefully, unable to deny the claim. The scent of Nico pregnant by another Alpha would have disgusted Will for the entire pregnancy; he wouldn't even be able to get close to his mate without being affected by flare ups of anger and aggression.

It happened on rare occasion that mated Omegas still got raped despite their mating mark making them unappealing to most Alphas. Such attacks also happened to result in pregnancy on an even rarer occasion.

Every time it did though, the Alpha never stayed. It was too much for their instincts to handle. They either left or ended up hurting their Omega. Few, if any, ever came back.

Nico couldn't imagine Will doing either, but he'd also shared half a dozen ruts with the blonde. As gentle and loving as Will was, his hormones still drove him to decorate the Italian in bruises no matter how careful he was during his ruts.

"We have the camp." Nico reminded him. "The campers will be like our own. We'll stay here like we planned and help them become the heroes they were born to be."

Nico slipped onto Will's lap and laid his head onto the blonde's shoulder.

"I only need you Will. I don't need anything else to be happy."

The blonde carefully wrapped his arms around his mate and pulled him closer.

"I want to give you everything you want Nico. Everything you deserve. You can't tell me you don't want a family."

Nico nuzzled against his neck with closed eyes.

"When we thought it was because of my body that we couldn't be have kids you said you didn't need them. Did you mean that?"

"Of course." Will assured him.

"Then trust that I mean it now." He urged the blonde. "We'll be uncles, babysitters, and camp leaders. We'll be around more children than most people encounter in a lifetime." Nico promised. "They won't be ours the way we wanted, but they'll still be a part of our lives."

"Okay." Will breathed in response; sounding more tired than when he'd had 18 hour shifts in the infirmary during emergencies.

Nico shifted until the pair was lying together on their sides looking at each other with lidded eyes.

"I was afraid." Will admitted in a whisper. "I was so scared you'd hate me. That you'd leave."

Leftover tears trickled down his face and onto Nico's fingertips as he caught them.

"I was afraid before too, but I'm not anymore. I love you Will and that's enough. It'll always be enough."

Will leaned closer and kissed him; pouring every ounce of love and thankfulness he could into it.

"I love you my Omega." He whispered when they parted.

The raven looked at him with an exhaustedly endearing smile.

"I love you too my Alpha."

They fell asleep entangled with each other and when Nico awoke in the night to find Will's hand upon his stomach he didn't flinch. He just intertwined their fingers and fell back to sleep; knowing that he and Will would face whatever the future brought them together.

* * *

Sorry this one is a bit late. Hope the content makes up for it! Drop a review and let me know what you think!

Yours Truly,

Jessica499499/Lacy Fairgold


	3. Rut

**1 year later.**

Will sighed as he noted that they need more scalpels on the checklist in his hand.

He hated doing the infirmary inventory, but he knew if he left it to any of the younger campers they'd end up forgetting something vital.

He still shuddered at the thought of the time that someone had forgotten to reorder sponges; that had been a dark day in the infirmary.

His irritation however was less to do with the task at hand and more to do with the fact that he had plans with Nico that night and this was taking far too long.

His mate had been away from camp on an errand for his father for the last several days and had only arrived home late the night before. Will had barely been awake when his mate had slipped into their bed and other than dropping a kiss to his forehead and giving off a faint glow of happiness he'd barely done anything to celebrate his mate's return.

He'd hoped to at least enjoy breakfast together with Nico, but an early morning emergency in the infirmary had driven him from his bed only a few hours later. He didn't have the heart to awaken his love on his first day off all month from godly missions and camp activities before he absolutely had to, so he'd dropped a kiss to the raven's forehead and went on his way.

They'd barely had a chance to make hasty plan to have dinner in their cabin that night during lunch and now Will was getting dangerously close to missing his dinner date with Nico.

He hated missing quality time with his mate, especially after missing him so much while he was away. Plus his rut would be starting in less than a week and his desire to be near his mate was like an itch under his skin. An itch that intensified as he thought of the whispered dessert the raven had also promised him after their dinner date.

They'd finally reached a place where they could make love again without hurting at the thought of what couldn't come of their union. It was finally something they did with only love and affection in mind; without all the worries that had previously accompanied it.

Will realized he was glowing a bit at the thought and had to pause and will the light from his skin. He hated the thought of anyone other than Nico ever seeing him all flustered and florescent. With that thought in mind he hurried through the rest of the items on his list.

3 boxes of gloves, 4 boxes of syringes, and two industrial sized bottles of sunscreen later he was done.

Will was literally a second away from changing out of his scrubs and getting home to his mate when the screaming started.

Will let himself grieve for his evening for all of a second before he slipped into doctor mode.

A satyr burst through the door not a moment later with a bleeding child in their arms and no matter how many times it happened Will never got used to it.

"What happened?" He asked quickly, already going through the various possibilities in his mind.

"New camper, a Chimera bite on her leg on the way in." The satyr bleated.

Will cursed. "Try not to jostle her, it'll make the venom spread." He instructed as he began filling a syringe with Chimera anti-venom.

"Lay her flat and hold her down. She might start convulsing and we need her to move as little as possible."

The bite was already turning a nasty shade of red tinged black and every second counted.

"On the count of three. Three, two, one. Now." Will injected her as quickly as he dared.

No sooner did it enter her system then she began convulsing. Will helped pin her down and began a healing hymn he knew by heart.

The girl's breaths went from shallow to deep and back again for several moments, but within minutes she was back on the hospital bed and breathing normally.

Will took his own steadying breath before placing a hand to her forehead. He could feel her vitals beneath his touch as easily as he could have read them off a monitor.

"Good, her body isn't rejecting it. We need to wrap the wound loosely with sterile gauze and monitor her for the night, plus get as much nectar and ambrosia into her system as possible, but she should be okay."

The satyr gave a bleating sigh of relief.

"Ohh good, the poor thing can't die before she's even claimed."

As if on cue a light began to glow over the still unconscious girl. It took Will a minute to register exactly what the silhouette was depicting, but after a moment he was sure he was looking at a bamboo shoot.

"Never seen that one before." He mumbled to himself.

"I haven't seen one of those in almost a century." A new voice added from the doorway.

Chiron must have been drawn in from the sounds of the screams and followed them to their ideal destination the infirmary.

"That's the symbol of Priapus the Greek god of fertility."

Will titled his head at that. "If he's the god of fertility why hasn't there been a child of his at camp for that long?"

Chiron looked down at the sleeping girl fondly as he brushed a lock from her face.

"Because Priapus used to give us so many children that the other gods grew concerned. Mostly because his children were so fertile themselves. Always with multiple births and easy pregnancies. Almost all of them were Omega. The camp ended up almost being overwhelmed by their numbers. Dionysus eventually put his foot down and the rest of the gods eventually got Priapus to agree to have only one child a century to make up for the fact he'd always had so many before. Having only that single one a century changed him. He began to value them so much more than when he had dozens. We're lucky this one lived or he might have taken his anger out on the camp."

Will looked down at the girl with a new fondness. As a man who couldn't even have one child he understood how precious this girl must have been to her father as his only.

"You've done enough Will. I'll monitor her for the night. Go be with Nico." Chiron offered kindly.

The blonde nodded absently. New children always plucked at his heart strings and made him remember what he was able to forget so much of the time. That no child that every walked through the infirmary door would ever be his own. With his mate's fathomless eyes or his own freckled features.

As Will stepped into the cooling evening air he tried to shake off the feeling. He would see Nico soon and that always quelled any turmoil inside him.

Will walked toward their cabin without noting the set of eyes upon him that belonged to no demigod. That watched him with curiosity.

* * *

Despite the dropping temperature of the evening Will had to stop twice on the way to his cabin to wipe sweat from his brow. He felt so warm all of a sudden. Warm and….wanting?

Will blushed at the thought. His rut shouldn't be starting so soon, yet every step closer to his cabin made him feel hotter.

He needed Nico. He needed his mate.

The blonde was panting by the time he got the cabin door closed behind him and the sight of Nico in front of him.

The raven looked ravishing with his hair pulled back in a short ponytail and his face scrunched in concentration as he folded the small stack of laundry in the basket in front of him. It was such a mix of endearingly domestic and hot that Will didn't know what he wanted more, to cuddle with his mate or push him to the ground and make love to him.

In his struggle to decide he didn't even notice he was edging closer to his mate until the smaller man's back was pressed tight to his chest and Will was nosing at his neck.

Nico didn't even startle. He just leaned back into the hold and tilted his head back to get a glimpse of his Alpha.

"Miss me Tesoro?" He asked teasingly.

Will just whimpered and pulled them both back so that the blonde was sitting on the edge of the bed and Nico was atop his lap.

The action made the Italian laugh.

"Missed you too." He chuckled lowly as the blonde began coating his neck in lingering open mouthed kisses. Nico titled his head back to give his mate more skin to mark as he let out his own little pants of pleasure.

"Gods I missed you." Nico admitted breathlessly.

Will was beyond words. Beyond everything but the feel of his mate on top of him and their bed beneath him.

He'd never had a rut come on his early or this fast before, but he was too overheated to care. He tried to convey just how overwhelmed he was by continuing to whimper and whine against his mate's skin, but even that felt impossible.

Only his mate's name seemed to be able to pass through his lips.

"Nico…My Nico…..Nico I…." His desire was practically palpable as he continued to weakly paw at his mate's top.

The raven looked at him with a mix of fondness and understanding.

"I know rut babble when I hear it Tesoro. If you're asking for permission you have it. I'm your Nico. Yours to help when the flames burn inside you too."

Will was so drenched in hormones he almost started crying. "Mine." He echoed weakly as his lips found their way to the claiming mark on Nico's neck.

Nico curled a tender hand into Will's hair and offered his neck with a willingness that made the Alpha whimper.

"Your Nico. Your mate." He reminded the blonde gently.

This time tears really did start spilling from Will's eyes as he took in the words.

One must have landed on the raven's hand, because a second later he was turning in Will's grasp and looking at him with concern.

"Tesoro?"

Will pressed his face into the hollow of the Italian's neck and continued to sob.

"Love you. Love you so much." He wept against olive skin.

Nico didn't know how to respond. Will usually started his ruts off trying to be as gentle as possible before he got so into it that it was all Nico could do to hang on for the ride. He'd never cried during a rut before. Not even during the first one they'd shared together.

"I love you too." He assured the weeping blonde.

The son of Apollo hiccupped against Nico's skin as he wrapped his arms around the raven and held him tightly against his chest.

"I want…" He gasped wetly, unable to put it into words.

Nico titled his head back to look at him as much as he could in his position.

Will was glowing, faintly but surely, in the dim light of their cabin.

He looked so beautiful in that moment. Blue eyes wet and wide, lips pressed together in a pout, and skin shinning like a dawning day.

Nico could barely stand to take his eyes off him for the minute it took for him to wiggle out of Will's grasp long enough to turn so that they were chest to chest and he was straddling the blonde's lap.

He cupped Will's face between his hands and kissed the blonde with everything he had; till it felt like he was the one glowing.

When they parted the blonde blinked up at him slowly through pleasure widened eyes.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered.

Nico smiled shyly and pressed their foreheads together.

"When you look at me like that I feel beautiful."

Will kissed him again and again and again until they were both dizzy from it.

"Please." The blonde begged between them.

Nico nodded his understanding and pulled his shirt over his head in one swift motion. At the same time Will untied the bow on his sweatpants and pushed them down his hips. Nico stood up just long enough to wiggle out of his pants and underwear before hungrily clawing at his mate's top. Will allowed himself to be stripped with his own hungry grin at the sight of his mate slinking back up onto his bare lap with a ravenous look in his eyes.

"I love when you glow." Nico admitted between kisses.

Even in the midst of his ruts that compliment alone would have usually made the blonde a blushing and stuttering mess, but this time all it did was turn the light show that was Nico's mate up another notch.

"For you." Will breathed back. "Only for you."

The words melted away the last lingering bit of tension between Nico's shoulders leftover from his last errand for his father and let him sink completely into the moment with his mate.

Will was so gentle with him. Always so gentle.

His touch made the world blurry along the edges and sparks burst under Nico's skin.

Despite the many times they'd made love in the last few years Nico was reminded vividly of their first time together as his mate held him close with one hand and prepped him with his other.

Everything had been so new to him then and even after so long it still always felt new. It still always felt special.

"Nico?" Will questioned when he noted the dazed look in his love's eyes.

The raven shook his head to clear his thoughts before moaning at the feeling of his own movement on top of Will.

It always felt so new and special and _good _to be with Will like this.

"Sunshine…" Will whimpered beneath him.

Nico laughed breathlessly before gathering twin handfuls of Will's curls and pulling him into a kiss.

"Make love to me." He ordered when they parted.

The blonde didn't need to be told twice as he gathered up his mate and pressed them as close together as they could be.

Nico closed his eyes against the ever pleasurable pain of being joined with Will like this; relishing how it dripped down his spine and eventually left him withering with want.

He could still see Will's glow behind his closed eyelids and now it felt like he could actually feel it inside him. An extra sensation of pulsing warmth that chased the twinge of pain away much faster than normal

When Nico eventually opened his eyes again it was to as familiar a sight as it was to a foreign one.

He was used to seeing Will like this. Sweat drenched curls sticking to his forehead and mouth open and unleashing the sexiest whimpers Nico had ever heard.

What he wasn't used to was just how bright Will was. Sure Will tended to glow when they were intimate, but never like this. Never so bright it almost hurt to look at him.

"Tesoro?" Nico questioned hesitantly.

If the blonde heard him he didn't show it; instead he just pulled Nico into another soul searing kiss without even opening his eyes.

Nico was the one to whimper this time when he felt the blonde turn them so that his back was to the bed and Will was hovering over him.

All he could see was light and all he could feel was Will inside him, over him, loving him.

"Will!" He shrieked to the heavens as the blonde set a bruising pace.

The blonde captured his shriek with a kiss that felt more like a defibrillator shock than normal lip contact.

"Mine." The Alpha whimpered when they parted; right before he bit down on Nico's claiming mark so hard the raven saw stars.

It was all Nico could do to hang on as Will fucked him without letting go of his hold on Nico's shoulder.

It was like Will had skipped straight through his attempts to be gentle at first and gone directly to the peak of his rut in a manner of minutes. To the part that Nico loved almost as much as their love making. The part where instinct took over and Will practically dripped Alpha pheromones; the part that left Nico decorated in bruises and bites and brimming over with satisfaction.

He could feel it all begin to crest as Will's thrusts began to increase in pace and strength. The son of Hades could feel his mate's knot begin to swell and catch inside him as his love's climax and his own grew closer. The blonde tore his mouth away from Nico's skin long enough to mutter another quick "Mine." Before everything went wondrously, gloriously, white.

* * *

When Nico woke up he couldn't see right away. It took several long sleepy blinks for him to take in the sight of his ceiling above him and actually know what he was looking at.

Gentle blunt tipped nails where drawing designs on his still bare chest while another hand gently stroked his hair.

It took him a minute to recognize the buzzing in his ear as humming and feel warm breath wafting along the top of his neck.

"I don't think I can feel my legs." He noted absently as his vision cleared.

A warm chuckle replaced the humming.

"Mine feel like Jello too." Will admitted happily.

Despite the slight pain in his lower half Nico turned himself over so that he was facing his mate.

While not actually glowing now Will looked deliriously happy as he flashed his love a blinding grin.

Nico smiled back at him sleepily whilst nuzzling into Will's palm.

The blonde's voice got lower as he ran a calloused thumb across his mate's cheek.

"You've never passed out when we've made love before. You scared me for a second."

Nico could feel the pleased flush race across his pale skin.

"You've never turned into a mini sun in bed before either." He countered teasingly.

Will turned several shades of red and leaned forward to bury his face into Nico's neck.

"I have no idea what that was about. One minute I was walking out of the infirmary and the next thing I know my rut was hitting me full force. I just … I needed you so much I couldn't think straight."

Nico curled his fingers around the back of Will's neck and caressed the skin there. His smile was serene as he leaned forward to place a kiss to his mate's forehead.

"Well you got me, and I'm going to be feeling it for days too."

Nico could feel the heat from Will's flush against his lips and it just made him smile more.

"Hmmm….it was totally worth it. I've never come that hard before….. Definitely your best rut yet."

Will pulled back a little to see his love's face before responding.

"It's my quickest yet that's for sure. I think it's already over."

Nico blinked at that. Will's ruts had always been short, much more so than other Alphas, but never less than a day.

"That's really quick Will. Are you sure you're okay?" He asked in concern.

The blonde smiled fondly at him, but it was tinged with sadness.

"Heat and rut lengths tend to shorten with age. I had hoped that wouldn't happen to either of us till we were much older, but given the circumstances…"

He didn't bring up his condition or need to. Nico understood.

His own voice was as gentle as he responded.

"I don't think I can walk much as it is right now. Days of that would leave me bedridden for a month."

Will accepted his words for the comfort rather than facts that they held and pulled the younger man in close. Nico nuzzled his nose against the bared collarbone before him before tangling their legs together and relaxing.

"Do you think all that glowing meant anything?" He asked absently as sleep crept closer.

Will was just as close to dozing as his mate and only offered a soft sound of unsureness in response.

"Did it feel different for you?" The blonde half mumbled into his hair.

Nico gave his own half hummed response as he pondered the question.

"Yeah. It felt good….like I was glowing too." He admitted.

Will huffed a laugh against his hair.

"Now that would be a sight to see. The son of Hades gleaming like a glowstick."

If Nico had had even an ounce more of energy he would have elbowed his mate for that comment, but he was too close to sleep to even attempt it.

"Better a glowstick than a megawatt lightbulb." He countered sleepily.

If Will heard him he didn't show it; just cuddled closer to the raven and began to softly snore.

Fondness fluttered inside Nico at the feel of it.

"Love you Will." He breathed against tanned skin, just before sleep claimed him.

Just before his stomach began to glow.

* * *

What do you guys think?

Yours Truly,

Jessica499499/Lacy Fairgold


	4. Are You Sure

He was going to be sick.

Nico barely had time to shove a Demeter boy out of his way in time to all but thrust his head into a toilet and get a view of his breakfast for the second time that day.

Ten minutes of retching later the Italian was cursing enchanted dishware. How he'd managed to get himself sick off of camp food almost every day this week was beyond him. It wasn't like it wasn't things he hadn't had a million times before; plus it was too inconsistent to be a stomach flu. The Hecate cabin had already checked him for curses and Will had been boggled by his symptoms as well.

All Nico knew was that he felt like crap and he just wanted it to stop.

The raven had been in such a rush that he hadn't shut the stall door at all and it didn't surprise him when a young head poked its way in.

It was a new Athenian child; a young blonde boy who'd only been at camp a few weeks and who'd only had a handful of classes with Nico so far.

"Ummm Mr. di Angelo…..Are you okay?"

The raven tried to put on a brave face as he wiped vomit from the corner of his mouth.

"I'm find Conner, just a bit of the flu."

The young blonde looked dubious.

"Are you sure you aren't pregnant Mr. di Angelo? Cause when my big brother got pregnant he threw up a lot in the mornings too."

Nico froze at the question. He knew it wasn't asked to hurt him. It wasn't asked to shame him or make him feel like less. Conner only knew he was an Omega with a mate. To ask if he was expecting made sense since he hadn't been there long enough to know that it wasn't possible for Nico to be pregnant.

The fact was so deeply ingrained into Nico's head that the thought that his morning puking could be morning sickness hadn't even crossed his mind. It was too painful to even contemplate.

Especially since there had been a heart wrenching day during his second year with Will that a bout of the stomach flu had initially made him think he was experiencing morning sickness. Had made him believe for all of one glorious morning that just maybe he wasn't broken and could carry life inside him. At least before they found out about Will.

Even as Conner said it bile rose in Nico's throat and he had to swallow hard to stop it.

It wasn't possible, he couldn't even think it.

"I can't get pregnant Conner." He finally managed to force out through his raw throat.

The grey eyed boy blinked back at him slowly at the words. He'd probably never even heard of infertility being an issue in an Alpha/Omega coupling.

"Are you sure?" He asked with blatant disbelief.

Before Nico could even think to respond his head was back in the toilet and his mouth was otherwise occupied.

* * *

**_"Are you sure?" _**

The words kept playing back in Nico's head over and over as the week passed and his sickness continued.

As his mate checked his temperature and fretted about his diet and when he did Nico let his thoughts wonder.

He didn't dare ask Will. Didn't dare get the blonde's hopes up. He felt stupid even thinking it was possible.

And yet…..

He still rummaged around under his sink in the bathroom.

He still stared at the test in his hands for half an hour before taking it.

He still cried when he got the results.

* * *

Sorry about the shortness. I'm working on the next part now and will be posting it next Saturday! Only one more part to go! Let me know what you guys think!

Yours truly,

Jessica499499/Lacy Fairgold


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